Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Saturday 28 October 2023

Zephyrinus Contemplates New Choir Stalls For The Private Chapel In Zephyrinus Mansion. Readers Are Invited To State Their Preference. Perkins (Chauffeur) And Jeeves (Butler) Refuse To Do The Wax Polishing.

 


Ely Cathedral Choir Stalls.
Illustration: 



Rochester Cathedral Choir Stalls.
Text and Illustration: ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL


Charles Tracy studies the exceptional Early- 13th-Century Choir Stalls and associated timber furniture, with drawings and carpentry notes by Cecil Hewett. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1994-1995.

The survival of Choir-Stalls before the 14th-Century in Northern Europe is a great rarity. In Germany, there are some 12th-Century seats at Ratzeburg, near Lübeck. 

Such survivors from the Early-Gothic period, as there were 
by the 18th-Century in France, Belgium, and Germany, were either replaced with Baroque furniture, or succumbed to the depredations of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. 


Some of the fine Early 13th-Century Choir Stalls from Lausanne Cathedral still huddle inappropriately and uncertainly in the South Nave Aisle. 

In France, one can only point to the Mid-13th-Century Choir Stalls in the small Abbey Church of Notra Dame de la Roche, Le Mensil Saint Denis, South of Paris. 

In England, a complete set of Choir Stalls of this period survive at Salisbury Cathedral, and three Oak Columns with Stiff-Leaf Foliage, possibly from an Early-Gothic set of Choir Stalls at Peterborough Abbey.

A complete set of Choir Stalls, albeit of almost entirely 18th-Century workmanship, and dating from as early as circa 1227, is found at Rochester Cathedral.


Lincoln Cathedral Choir Stalls.
Text and Illustration: FLICKR/AIDAN McRAE THOMSON

Lincoln Cathedral has a strong claim to being England’s finest Mediæval building, being one of the most ambitious and beautifully designed and adorned Cathedrals in Europe, a real masterpiece of Gothic architecture.

The Cathedral also boasts some of the finest Mediæval woodwork in the Country in its superb Choir Stalls, extensively carved with Canopies with Misericords (though, sadly, the latter are rarely on show).



Bristol Cathedral Choir Stalls.
Illustration: HEATHER ON HER TRAVELS
Photo: 13 March 2008.
Source: Own work.
Uploaded by: NotFromUtrecht
Author: Heather Cowper from Bristol, UK
(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia.

The three rows of Choir Stalls are mostly from the Late-19th-Century, with Flamboyant traceried ends. There are also twenty-eight Misericords, dating from 1515 to 1526, installed by Robert Elyot, Abbot of Saint Augustine’s, with carvings largely based on Aesop's Fables.[62]



Salisbury Cathedral Choir Stalls.
Illustration: PINTEREST

2 comments:

  1. “Indeed, a modest addition for the private Zephyrinus chapel.”

    Perkins and Jeeves should be thrilled to participate in such historical preservation. Indeed. —Note by Dante P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Dante P.

      Zephyrinus has tried to inculcate Perkins and Jeeves with the historical preservation perspective at Zephyrinus Mansion. They both stared blankly, grunted something or other, and went down the pub (after asking for the keys to the Brandy Cupboard). Grand lads, indeed, but a bit unreliable !!!

      Delete

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